As Salaamu Alaikum!
Vance - You said "When I speak of "Melungeons" I am referring to the specific geographic location generally considered their home -- from Scott Co in SW Va to Hancock Co in NE Tn basically -- those other areas you mentionight be regions where the ancestors of the Melungeons once lived, but the term itself originated in that region I mention. In other words, people from other places might have lived side by side with Melungeons and been Saponi, but they were never called Melungeons as were those from SW Va to NE Tn. The term was originally specific to that region only. "
The Ridge-Only mentality of some tracing their ancestry to Newmans Ridge is truly horrible. The Graysville Melungeons have long been known as Melungeons, they live in the lowlands of Hamilton, Roane and Rhea counties. As far as I am concerned, our claim to the use of the Melungeon name is just as good as those on Newman's Ridge. The way some of the Ridge-Onlies attack those of us who admit having some Black ancestry has alienated me to the point where I have little interest in this group and they are not who I mean when I say Melungeon.
I use Melungeon as it is used in "What is a Melungeon". "The original group in Henry and Patrick counties, Virginia, and Rockingham, Stokes and Surry counties, North Carolina, has been called the Goinstown Indians. As they moved west, in Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes, Alleghany and Ashe counties, they were called Melungeons. Some have always been called Melungeon, like the community in Hancock, Hawkins and Grainger counties of Tennessee and the one in Wise, Scott and Lee counties of Virginia and the one in Letcher county, Kentucky. The one in Person County, North Carolina, has been called the Person County Indians (they are somewhat organized under that name) and earlier the Cubans. The group in Rhea, Roane and Hamilton counties, Tennessee, are called the Goins locally, but have long been identified as Melungeons by people from the rest of Tennessee. The group in Magoffin and Floyd counties, Kentucky, and Highland county, Ohio, has been called the Magoffin County People in Kentucky and the Carmel Indians in Ohio, and have only recently been called Melungeons. The group in western Louisiana and adjacent Texas is known as the Redbones (not to be confused with the Red Bones of South Carolina) or the Louisiana Melungeons. The group in Gulf and Calhoun counties, Florida, was called Melungeon as long as they were identified as a separate group but was also known as the Dead Lake People." The groups I am primarily interested in are the Goinstown Group of Henry, Patrick, Rockingham, Stokes and Surry Counties, VA and NC, The Graysville Melungeons of Hamilton, Roane and Rhea counties, TN, and the Texas-Louisiana Melungeons along the Sabine River.
My great great grandmother was recorded as Cherokee for her marriage, but I do not believe she was Cherokee. She lived in Roane county and was named Barnes, which is a Graysville Melungeon type name. She died shortly after my great grandfather's birth, I do not know anything more about her or her family.
The Nichols I talked to in Highlands County, Ohio, Carmel Melungeons or Carmel Indians, claimed recent Cherokee ancestry and they did look like they had Indian ancestry, which I have never seen in any other Melungeon community, including the Hancock-Hawkins-Grainger-Wise-Scott-Lee-Letcher counties, TN, Va and KY, group.
I have talked to several people in the Black comunity of northeastern Florida (Jacksonville, etc.) who claimed Blackfoot ancestry. They did not know what the term meant but I never heard that it meant part Black.
Please distinguish between my statements and the quotes from "What is a Melungeon". Appalachian Indian is from "What is a Melungeon", the sentence before explains it means the Yuchi, Tuscarora and Cherokee, it is used in a geographical sense in opposition to Piedmont and Coastal, three zones of Virginia. Note that some writers contend that the Yuchi are the main Indian ancestors of the Melungeons, see Karlton Douglas, etc.
Do see "What is a Melungeon" and the attached note on "The Original Melungeon Home Area" at
http://www.rossmusic.net/what_is_a_melungeon.htmMo Alaikum Salaam
